Our Corporate Plan to 2030 - Our draft impacts and strategic indicators

Overview

The development of our vision, mission, and well-being objectives in our Corporate plan to 2030, Nature and people thriving together, set out how NRW will play our part in the Team Wales approach, to tackling the nature, climate, and pollution emergencies.

To complement the publication of our corporate plan, we have developed impact statements and strategic indictaors to provide an integrated perspective on strategic performance.

Developed collaboratively across the organisation throughout 2023-24, they detail how we will maintain our alignment to the intent of our vision, telling our story over the lifetime of the corporate plan.

The impact statements set the ambition of what we want to see by 2030 and beyond, recognising that we cannot address the nature, climate and pollution emergencies alone and that collective action will be required across sectors to realise positive change.  

The strategic indicators focus on those things NRW can directly influence, using its levers and tools, and are intentionally ambitious and stretching. Together these provide a strategic perspective of progress towards our well-being objectives and the multiple benefits that flow from our work.

We will test these in 2024-25, using them to frame NRW Board strategic deep-dive sessions, while also engaging with partners to share insight and identify opportunities for collaboration. We will finalise them in the autumn of 2024 and look to implement them from 2025-26 to 2030.

Impact statements

Six impact statements have been developed around our three well-being objectives, and set the ambition for the change we want to see for both nature and people by 2030. They recognise that some elements will be our specific responsibility to evidence and others where responsibility for delivery will be shared with our partners.

These are:

Impact 1: By 2030 the decline in biodiversity is halted; effective regulation, habitat restoration and nature-based solutions contribute to increasingly resilient ecosystems enabling adaptation to change, benefiting people’s well-being.

Impact 2: By 2030 sustained action on the causes, risks and impacts of climate change means nature and people are enabled and empowered to adapt, alleviating the effects on people’s well-being

Impact 3: By 2030 pollution is minimised through effective regulation and legislative reform, reducing harm to biodiversity and people’s well-being, and driving the sustainable management and use of natural resources

Impact 4: By 2030 increased action for social and environmental justice is maximising benefits for nature, climate, and pollution and reducing social inequalities

Impact 5: By 2030 sustained collaborative action means individuals and organisations are taking integrated decisions to address the nature, climate and pollution emergencies

Impact 6: By 2030 consistent delivery of our values and behaviours in NRW mean colleagues, partners and communities are engaged, enabled and empowered to innovate and accelerate action.

Strategic indicators

To track progress in achieving these impacts, and to highlight where we have the greatest influence, we have also set out 12 ambitious strategic indicators. These will allow us to monitor progress over time and are aligned to several impact statements, underlining our integrated approach to monitoring and reporting.

SI 1:   Increasing the proportion of ecosystems that are defined as resilient

SI 2:   Increasing the rate of habitat restoration

SI 3:   Increasing the integration of activities that support nature recovery into Wales’ public services

SI 4:   Decreasing the rate of pollution on land and entering water bodies

SI 5:   Decreasing the rate of pollution to air from industrial and non-industrial sources

SI 6:   Decreasing the rate of greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the rate of sustainable sequestration

SI 7:   Increasing the proportion of the population who have access to high quality green or blue space, and who use them sustainably

SI 8:   Increasing the proportion of the population living in places that will continue to support and contribute to their health and well-being in a changing climate

SI 9:   Increasing the impact of partnership approaches which deliver multiple benefits and address the root causes of the nature, climate, and pollution crises

SI 10: Increasing the proportion of the population that act to mitigate and adapt to the nature, climate, and pollution crises

SI 11: Increasing the proportion of organisations and businesses who act to mitigate and adapt to the nature, climate, and pollution crises

SI 12: Increasing the proportion of NRW colleagues feeling engaged, enabled, and empowered

The combination of impacts; quantitative and qualitative indicators; and supporting narrative provide a strategic perspective of progress towards our well-being objectives and the multiple benefits that flow from our work.

The report has been set out in five sections and should be read alongside our corporate plan. We have also prepared a method statement.

Ahead of the final publication later in the year, the detailed draft documents are available for review here:

Draft impacts and strategic indicators

Annex 1 - Methodology

Annex 2 - Steps to take to strategic indicators